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The heroes of the comics named “The 99” created to serve the correction ‘Muslim’ image after 9/11 will embark on adventures together with American superheroes and watching Obama’s speech together they will give “alliance of civilizations” message.

The heroes of the comics named “The 99” made with an aspiration of “99 attributes of Allah” for the purpose of addressing to the Arab world will embark on joint adventures with the world’s most famous comic book characters. Kuwait based Teshkeel Comics is getting ready for a cooperation with DC Comics and Marvel that produce comic strips like Superman, Batman, Spiderman, X-Man and Wonder Woman. BBC broadcasted the news with the headline “alliance of civilizations” in the comic book world.

They can come together in Obama's speech
The Kuwaiti creator of “The 99” Naif Al-Mutawa said the opening scene of the story where the heroes of the two sides will appear can be something like the speech Barack Obama has made in Cairo last June. Aside from the clues that Al-Mutawa gives, the projects really seems to be a part of the image making the USA has started in Obama period. Obama wants to develop a lovable and embracing image to change the hostile attitude developing against Muslims after 9/11 during former president George W. Bush’s period.

'The 99' in fact originates from the USA
The comics that took start with the idea of Al-Mutawa - a Kuwaiti who studied psychology and then canalized himself to business- and began to be published in the Middle East and Arab countries 3 years ago is also distributed in the USA in English. Forbes Magazine announced The 99 in its ‘20 Trends Sweeping the Globe” in 2008.

Although it is presented as a local product contributing to the global culture, The 99 is a product of the people who has worked several years in comics sector in the USA. The creator of the comics Al-Mutawa is one of the ex-marketing managers of Marvel. The co-writer of the series Fabian Nicieza is one of the creators of comics like Power Rangers and X-Man; the illustrators have a similar professional career. Moreover, The 99 began its publishing life as free supplement to Arabic version of the Spider Man.

Consequently, it’s hard to say that The 99 is an expansion towards the USA. The superheroes of The 99 were born together with American superheroes; after showing up for three years in Arab world they will now meet again with their brothers and sisters in the scope of an “alliance of civilizations” project.

Image making for Islam after 9/11
What the creator and mastermind of the comics Al-Mutawa has said deepens this picture. In a letter Al- Mutawa wrote that one of his sons was born right after 9/11 and 11 multiplied by 9 equals 99, therefore this gave him the key to crackdown the hatred against Islam. Al-Mutawa said, “I had already made a decision that I needed to find a way to take back Islam from its hostage takers, but I did not known how… The 99 references the 99 attributes of Allah - generosity, mercy, wisdom and dozens of others not used to describe Islam in the media when you were growing up. But if I am successful, by the time you read this, you will not believe that such an era could have ever existed.”

Positive Muslim characters to stand as role model for the children
Al-Mutawa who says that his aim was to create “positive Muslim characters’ who will be idols for the children further speaks as follows: “Here we have Saddam, who was considered a hero in his country and who then tortured his own population. I started thinking: what kind of message are we sending our kids about what it means to be a hero and about what they can aspire to?” While no emphasis is made in the comics that the heroes are Muslims, they are also not seen when they worship.

The story begins with the invasion of Baghdad by the Mongolians in 1258; the Mongolians burn down the Baghdad library and handful of librarians manage to escape the onslaught and condense the texts of the library into 99 Noor stones. Over the years, the caretakers of the stones diverge and the stones become lost in 99 different countries of the world. The readers meet one by one with 99 superheroes of different nationalities. Each of these heroes notice in the meantime that they have one of the 99 attributes that are accepted as distinguished according to Islam. The heroes have to unite their attributes and act together in order to save the world.

From the onset of the comics until now 23 of the superheroes have been introduced step by step. 49 of the superheroes are women, each of whom is differently dressed, ordinarily dressed, semi-covered and one of them totally covered by the head and the body. It is said that in the following series four women wearing burka will be added to the team. Some of the characters and their abilities are as follows:

Rafie- the Lifter comes from Istanbul

13 year old Hungarian hero Jami – the Assembler is an intuitive engineering and electronics genius who can understand the fundamental building blocks of technological development.
He can make hundreds of different types of armor or firepower that attach to him instantly so is often seen looking bearing varying weapons and wearing various armor.

Hadya –the Guide, her brain works like a GPRS system and powerful telephoto satellite. She is able to map out any location, figure out how to get there, and even visualize the area.
Slowly developing life-guiding abilities, with philosophical divinations that create interpretation problems for her.

Noora- the Light is the daughter of a rich family from UAE; she has the ability to see the light of truth in others and allowing them or forcing them to see it in themselves.

Fattah- the Opener is a 22 year old Indonesian young man and he can create and manipulate rifts in space, which allow him to open and close instant gateways to any location. He can travel through the portals and perhaps Fattah can use his powers to traverse time as well as space.

Sami -the Listener meaning “the one who hears everything” has hearing capability at a superhuman level. He can hear sounds at great distances and can even hear sounds that are beyond normal levels of human hearing.

Mumita’s nickname the Destroyer means “the one who created the death of the created ones.” She comes from Portugal and has excellent speed, strength, agility, reflexes and ferocity; in addition to this her body develops invulnerability through a unique subconscious process that inhibits pain.

Dar –the Afflicter was a promising young man with a bright future ahead of him, who belonged to a supportive family. He lost it all in a second when a drunk driver collided with his car a few years ago, killing his family and paralysing John from the waist down. He is able to stimulate an organism's nerves associated with feeling pain and can give them unbearable pain.

Jabbar- the Powerful is from Saudi Arabia. He can increase his mass exponentially and this allows him to become superhumanly strong.

Batina the Hidden has a meaning as “ the one who cannot be perceived by five senses.” She wears a burka like the one worn by Ninjas and comes from Yemen. It is said that four more women characters wearing burkas will be added in the forthcoming series.

Until now a Turkish hero also appeared in the series. Rafie, The Lifter, i.e. a man living in Istanbul named Murat Uyaroğlu. He can move the objects with mind power and can fly like Superman.

Partnership with the producer of ‘Big Brother’
Teshkeel Comics had other partnerships in the “globalization’ adventure of The 99. One of these partnerships was in the process of animation version of the comics with Endemol, the creator of some “unbelievable’ competition and reality shows. They plan to make the animation in India in English and Arabic beginning from 2010 as a series of 26 sequences.

Besides Big Brother, Endemol had put its signatures to competition shows like 'Someone's Gotta Go’ in which working people were fired and 'Great Donor Show’ in which 3 patients competed with each other for kidney transplant. Teshkeel Comics makes the propaganda of Islamic merits but isn’t bothered to cooperate with Endemol that produces programs where human dignity is trampled under feet. They can easily pull themselves off by saying, “our aim is to publicize the 99 everywhere and through every channel.”

Islamic Disneylands are on the way
Furthermore, the 99 has its own amusement park just like Disneyland. One of the parks was opened in Kuwait and the number of these parks all over the world will be six. It was announced that the comic book will be published in Turkey as well.